NCHS AP English Language

Tyler Smith ch 3 pawn essay

Dylan starts out by comparing Beckwith with a pawn piece in a chess . They are the frontline of the battle and are there simply to protect the higher position. He uses different examples of social conditions to excuse the way he acted. Beckwith killed the leader of the NAACP, which Dylan tries to blame on the white society surrounding him. He says that the poor white men in America, have too much pressure on them to be critical of black people. They would do extreme things to prove they fit in with those people higher in society. The metaphor of a chess board is that Beckwith was hypnotized into Evers by the white society around him (the more important pieces on a chessboard like the king and queen). He says that this excuses them for their actions, basically because they are only pawns and not responsible for their actions. This idea is flawed because Beckwith was 100% sure of what he was doing and even though he might have had outside influence on him, Beckwith was in control of his own life. All in all Beckwith was not a pawn.

posted by NCHS AP English Language III @ 3:08 PM